November 17, 2012 - GAZA - Israel’s four-day-old air offensive in the Gaza Strip expanded to target Hamas government buildings on Saturday and Palestinian militants continued firing a torrent of rockets at civilian areas in southern Israel as both sides stepped up diplomatic efforts to win support.

Israeli airstrikes over Gaza accelerated to nearly 200 early in the day, including one hit that reduced the offices of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to a smoldering concrete heap. That strike, along with others on a police headquarters and smuggling tunnels along the strip’s southern border with Egypt, raised questions about whether Israel had broadened its mission to including toppling the Hamas government that rules the coastal strip. Just before sundown, Hamas said it had fired an Iranian-made Fajr-5 rocket at Tel Aviv, and air raid sirens sounded in that city for the third day in a row. The Israeli military said its newly deployed missile defense battery intercepted the rocket before it landed in the populous coastal city. - Washington Post.

WATCH: Israeli air strikes level Hamas headquarters.

WHO: Gaza Hospitals Overwhelmed - Critical Drug, Medical Supply Shortages...
Gaza hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties from Israel's bombings and face critical shortages of drugs and medical supplies, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday. The U.N. health agency appealed for $10 million from donors to meet the need for drugs and supplies over the next three months. Officials in Gaza said 43 Palestinians, nearly half of them civilians including eight children, had been killed since Israel began its air strikes. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket fired from the enclave on Thursday... The WHO, quoting Health Ministry officials in Gaza, said 382 people have been injured - 245 adults and 137 children. "Many of those injured have been admitted to hospitals with severe burns, injuries from collapsing buildings and head injuries," the WHO said in a statement issued in Geneva. Health authorities have declared an emergency situation in all hospitals to cope with patients, it said.- Huffington Post.

WATCH: "Missiles fell so close to us, it was a targeted assassination".

Rockets Fired From Egypt Hit Israel.
Two major Israeli newspapers are reporting that rockets fired from Egypt have hit Israel. "Terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula launched rockets into Israel Friday night," reports the Jerusalem Post. "The rockets fell near an Israeli village on the southern border, causing some damage, but no injuries." The Israeli daily Haaretz reports, "Rockets fired from direction of Egypt toward Eshkol Regional Council." It appears no damage was reported in connection with the rocket fire from Egypt. Earlier today, the Egyptian prime minister visited Gaza to express solidarity with the Palestinians there. This new front comes a day after a rocket landed near Tel Aviv and on the same day Israel's capital Jerusalem was the target of rocket fire. Those attacks were courtesy of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "After Tel Aviv metropolitan area, capital under fire too: An air raid siren was sounded in Jerusalem and surrounding communities early Friday evening. After residents reported hearing blast sounds, security forces confirmed that one rocket had landed in the Gush Etzion area near a Palestinian village," Ynet reports. "There were no reports of injuries or damage. This was the first air raid siren sounded in the area since the IDF launched Operation Pillar of Defense in the Gaza Strip. Air raid sirens were sounded in southern communities throughout the day and a barrage of missiles hit the area." - The Weekly Standard.

Anonymous "care package" to Gazans:http://www.mediafire.com/?hpnne29xvx1ceuv
Contains:
-- Instructions on how to reconnect to Internet
-- Instructions on how to avoid Israeli surveillance
-- First Aid guide
-- Anonymous press release Israel's Interior Minister - Goal To 'Send Gaza Back To The Middle Ages'!
Interior Minister Eli Yishai on Israel's operation in Gaza: "The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages. Only then will Israel be calm for forty years." - Haaretz.

November 17, 2012 - NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - For those fishing on Lake Erie at the Harry Probst Fishing Platform, something was a bit fishy Thursday - and it wasn't the smell of fish. Many dead gizzard shad fish populated the waters of Lake Erie. According to Senior Fish and Wildlife Technician Rich Zimar of the state Department of Environmental Conservation Fisheries Station in Dunkirk, the situation was not due to anything abnormal experienced by the fish. Zimar suggested the cause could be the temperature. "At this point in time, we don't see that it's a crisis situation," he said.

According to Zimar, this has happened in the past and gizzard shad can be subject to thermal stress. While Chautauqua County's shoreline is in the habitat for the gizzard shad, it is at the very edge of their living environment. Many come here looking for warmer water, especially around this time of the year. "Thousands upon thousands of fish pack into the harbor looking for warmer water," Zimar said. "We don't have warm water like we used to because the power plant isn't producing (warmer waters)."

Because of Niagara Mohawk is not producing enough energy as they were so the water in Lake Erie is not as warm causing the fish thermal stress. Zimar said samples of the fish were taken but the majority were heavily decomposed. The fisheries station will keep an eye on the lake and hopefully get fresh samples. "We'll keep an eye on it and grab some samples if we see fresh (fish)," Zimar said. While the lake is full of dead fish, there may be some good news. Many of the birds that are local love to eat fish, Zimar said. This is not the first time dead fish have been found in Lake Erie. While Zimar did not know the exact date, he estimated it was several years ago when a group of fish died off. - Observer Today.

November 17, 2012 - LOUISIANA, UNITED STATES - In the following excerpts from The Advocate, the Assumption Parish Situation Summary and the informal meeting of Bayou Corne Resident Meeting with Louisiana State Representatives; evidence has now surfaced that the Louisiana sinkhole has grown to over eight acres with "ridiculous" amounts of oil outside the hole.

Officials said that the gas freed by the cavern collapse now poses an uncertain risk to Bayou Corne residents who have been evacuated from their residences for more than three months. Meanwhile, officials have called for in-home air monitoring and specialized detectors and ventilation systems for slab-foundation homes. The evacuation order, affecting about 150 homes in the Grand Bayou and Bayou Corne communities, was issued within hours of the discovery of the sinkhole, though the presence of the gas now provides another reason to keep the order in place, parish officials have said The sinkhole, which now has an 8-acre surface area, is located in swamps between the communities south of La. 70 on property leased by Texas Brine from Occidental Chemical Corp. Boudreaux provided estimates showing the three vent wells had released 558,000 cubic feet of gas through Friday morning. An investigatory well that the Office of Conservation ordered Texas Brine to drill months ago to peer inside its failed cavern has burned another 598,000 cubic feet of gas through early Friday. Combined with the three vent wells, the four wells have removed nearly 1.2 million cubic feet of gas, the figures show. - The Advocate.

As of the 13th of November, the mandatory evacuation is still in effect... Texas Brine has removed 123 roll off boxes hydrocarbon contaminated debris and approximately 1900 Barrels of hydrocarbons from the surface of the sinkhole... USGS estimates the sources of seismic activity to be between 200 and 600 meters deep... In response to Texas Brine’s assertion that region seismic activity caused their cavern to be compromised, USGS stated (on 25 Sept. 2012) that it is their belief that the seismicity is a consequence of the collapse of the cavern, and not the cause of the collapse of the cavern and the formation of the sinkhole... - Assumption Parish Situation Summary [PDF].

In the following video of the informal meeting of Bayou Corne Resident Meeting with Louisiana State Representatives, the following extract can be heard at 35 minutes into the broadcast:

Resident: I done a flyover and I took some video there. That hole is — the oil outside of the boom of that thing is ridiculous.Why isn’t the EPA involved in that?

Rep. Karen St. Germaine: They are.

Resident: ... That swamp water is contaminated behind those peoples’ houses. No doubt in my mind the swamp is contaminated.

November 17, 2012 - VIETNAM - About 40 tonnes of red tilapias worth over VND1 billion (US$47,700) have died en masse in Thanh Binh town and Tan Thanh commune in the southern province of Dong Thap over the last few days.

FILE: Thousands from red tilapias found dead in Vietnam, from earlier this year.

Local farmers said that harvesting was nearly finished when the fish died, leaving them at a huge loss as they had already taken deposits from traders.

The deaths were initially attributed to pollution from the river water, caused by pesticide residue from discharged field water. Samples of the water have been taken for testing. - VNS.

November 17, 2012 - UNITED STATES - In early July 2012, conditions throughout most of the contiguous 48 states ranged from abnormally dry to exceptional drought. The widespread hot, dry conditions prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to declare more than 1,000 counties in 26 states natural disaster areas effective July 12, 2012. The declaration established the largest natural-disaster area in U.S. history.

The image above, based on U.S. Drought Monitor data, shows drought and abnormally dry conditions across the contiguous United States on July 10, 2012. Yellow indicates areas that are not in drought but are abnormally dry. Darker shades of orange and brown indicate varying degrees of drought, with dark red-brown indicating exceptional drought. Light gray indicates water, and charcoal gray indicates U.S. land areas unaffected by drought and areas outside of the country, which are not covered by the analysis. Pockets of abnormally dry conditions extend nearly continuously from northern Florida in the Southeast to eastern Washington State in the Northwest. Varying degrees of drought stretch from California to Delaware. An area of exceptional drought spans the state of Georgia. All of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois, and Indiana are in drought. Drought and/or abnormally dry conditions affect some or all of most states--only Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine have been spared.

On July 10, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported that, although precipitation had increased over the previous week, heavy rainfall amounts were isolated, and hot weather continued unabated, so only small patches of drought-plagued areas experienced any relief. Moreover, areas with the highest temperature anomalies were the same areas receiving little rainfall. Crop conditions worsened in the 18 primary corn-growing states, pushing 30 percent of the crop into poor or very poor conditions. A few areas experienced some improvement in drought conditions compared to the previous week, the Drought Monitor reported, including New Mexico, and the gulf coasts of Texas and Louisiana. Drought conditions worsened, however, across Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri. In the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states, potential relief from rainfall was offset by high temperatures. From the Great Lakes southward, daily highs as much a 13 degrees above normal coincided with sparse rainfall. Dry conditions persisted in parts of the Intermountain West and West Coast. - Oped News.

November 17, 2012 - JAPAN - A mountain trout caught in a Fukushima Prefecture river returned a radioactive cesium reading of 11,400 becquerels per kilogram, more than 100 times the government-set limit for food items, a survey by the Environment Ministry said Friday.

Presenting its measurement of radioactive cesium contained in fish and insects in rivers, lakes and sea in the prefecture, the ministry said the reading from the trout in Niida River in Minamisoma city, a municipality north of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station badly hit by the 2011 disaster, was way above the regulatory maximum of 100 becquerels. The survey conducted in June and July also found 4,400 becquerels of radioactive cesium in a smallmouth bass and 3,000 becquerels in a catfish in Mano Dam in Iitate village, another municipality heavily affected by the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. - Kyodo News.

The Guardian has posted a video online entitled CPM-703: After Fukushima, that takes an in-depth portrait into the lives of a population living under the constant threat of radiation in Fukushima, Japan.

• Being born in Fukushima Prefecture I took on a mission to create a physical record of the worst man made nuclear accident in history… Using a cameraless process, I want to capture the current state of Japan directly, by exposing photo-sensitive material to traces of radiation emitted from contaminated particles.
• I’m afraid Japan will follow in the footsteps of ancient civilizations that vanished like the Egyptians, Mayans and Mesopotamians that came before us.
• The tsunami and earthquake well they’re just the earth shivering. The problem is the disaster that man has made.
• There are so many possibilities of a tsunami and earthquake happening again. The damaged reactors haven’t been repaired yet… they haven’t been repaired at all.
• The resulting destruction will take half the planet along with it. …With one more earthquake or tsunami Japan will cease to exist.

November 17, 2012 - SRI LANKA - Rare showers of red rain fell for over 15 minutes in Sewanagala, Monaragala and Manampitiya, Polonnaruwa yesterday morning hours of yesterday and day before yesterday.

According to Meteorology Department sources red rain fell heavily in these areas and the reason has not been found yet. Red rain in Sewanagala and Manampitiya left red frost on the ground. This is the first time red rain was witnessed in Sri Lanka. The Health Ministry Secretary informed Medical Research Institute (MRI) Director Dr Anil Samaranayake to conduct a study to ascertain the reasons for red rain by taking water samples from Monaragala and Polonnaruwa. Increase in the acidity of the air and sand storms are the usual reasons for red rain. However, there are no sand storms in Sri Lanka. India had red rain last year and Indian scientists discovered a variety of micro organisms as a reason for the rains. Since the micro organisms had no DNA, they guessed it had to be a strange phenomenon. The MRI is carrying out research to find the exact reason for red rain in Sri Lanka. - Daily News.

Several days, the Spaceweather website highlighted the rare sighting of red auroras.

"I was amazed by the deep scarlet color, which was immediately recognizable to the unaided eye," says Cartier. Similar splashes of candy-cane red were spotted over Norway, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The apparition might be related to rare all-red auroras sometimes seen during intense geomagnetic storms. They occur some 300 to 500 km above Earth's surface and are not yet fully understood. Some researchers believe the red lights are linked to a large influx of low-energy electrons. When such electrons recombine with oxygen ions in the upper atmosphere, red photons are emitted. At present, space weather forecasters cannot predict when this will occur. - Spaceweather.

November 17th, 2012 - SUN - According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, Despite what a humongous eruption on the eastern limb of the Sun on November 16th, solar activity is expected to be at low levels with a slight chance for moderate activity through the period of the 18th to the 20th of November.

Analysis of Solar Active Regions and Activity from 16/2100Z to17/2100Z: Solar activity was at low levels. The largest flare was a C2event observed at 17/1810Z from Region 1615 (N08W21), a simple Bxo group
with beta magnetic characteristics. Region 1613 (S24W19) remained themost magnetically complex (beta-gamma) of the nine spotted regions on the visible disk, while Region 1614 (N15W07) remained the largest at 160 millionths. The general downward trend in active region complexity and size continued today.

The geomagnetic field was at quiet to unsettled levels. Solar wind measured at the ACE spacecraft began fluctuating between positive and negative sectors around 17/0655Z, enventually settling into the positive sector after 17/1800Z. About an hour after the fluctuations began, wind speed began rising from 390 km/s and reached a peak speed of 453 km/s at 17/1444Z. Total IMF reached 6.2 nT at 17/0746Z. The maximum southward component of Bz reached -4.7 nT at 17/0345Z. These observations were consistent with the arrival of a weak positive coronal hole high speed stream. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit reached 3160 pfu.

Geophysical Activity Forecast: The geomagnetic field is expected to be at mostly quiet levels with isolated unsettled periods possible for the next three days (18-20 Nov).

November 17, 2012 - AUSTRALIA - A fire started, powerlines were ripped down, trees were uprooted and roofs collapsed as severe thunderstorms ripped across Queensland and caused mass electricity outages. About 13,000 homes and business in Brisbane, Ipswich and Somerset were left without power as rain, hail and lightning struck the region at about 11am (AEST) on Saturday. In Ipswich, a small grass fire was sparked when lightning struck a crane next to the city's hospital just after 10am but the incoming rain extinguished it, a Department of Community Services (DCS) spokeswoman told AAP.

In Ann Street in the CBD, a hotel roof collapsed under the storm while another 72 calls for assistance were made asking for help with leaking roofs and fallen trees, "It turned day into night," a SES worker said. "It came quickly and then it left." By 6.30pm about 300 homes remained without power, with the majority of the outages continuing in the Algester area south of Brisbane. An Energex spokeswoman said they were unsure as to when power would be returned to the area as the repairs were "complicated". "We are working through the problems and doing it as quickly as we can," she said. More than 11,000 lightning strikes were recorded across Queensland's southeast since 10am, with Energex receiving reports of more than 100 powerlines down. Despite the widespread outages, the situation was not as bad as they have seen, the spokeswoman said.

"In our storm season we can see 20,000 to 30,000 lose power so 13,000 is really reasonable for us," she said. But she said Energex was looking towards Toowoomba to see if the second forecast storm would wreak more damage. On Saturday evening the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) was continuing to send out severe weather warnings for much of the state. "Very dangerous thunderstorms" were detected at a weather radar near Oakey, west of Brisbane, at about 6.30pm. The thunderstorms were forecast to move towards the northeast and to hit Haden, Cooyar and the area north of Crows Nest, Blackbutt, Yarraman and the area north of Cooyar. "Destructive winds, heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding and large hailstones are likely," the BoM said. The BoM said severe thunderstorms were also likely to produce damaging winds over the next few hours in parts of the Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders, Central Highlands and Coalfields, Central West and Maranoa and Warrego districts. People in Warwick, the Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Brisbane, Dalby, Coolangatta, Ipswich, the Moreton Bay islands, Kingaroy, Stanthorpe, Caloundra and Taroom were warned just before 8pm (AEST) to brace themselves for wild weather over the following hours.

Along the southeast, the BoM said "very dangerous" storms were detected near Esk and Lake Wivenhoe, with the front moving towards the northeast. The wild weather was also forecast to hit the D'Aguilar Ranges, Dayboro and Mount Mee north of Brisbane by 9.15pm. In the hour leading up to 8pm, the BoM recorded 65mm of rainfall at Buaraba, west of Brisbane. But the BoM said severe thunderstorms were no longer occurring in the Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders, Central West and Maranoa and Warrego districts. As the storm continues to lash Queensland, Energex said more than 1000 homes and businesses were without power in the Lockyer Valley area west of Brisbane. Meanwhile more than 1600 homes had lost power in Brisbane city. - Herald Sun.

Click HERE to view a slideshow of images taken during the passage of the storms.

November 17, 2012 - NASA - Stargazers, get psyched: The Leonid meteor shower is expected to peak late Friday night and continue through the weekend. If you can find a clear, dark spot where the starry night sky is visible, you can expect to see as many as 15 to 20 shooting stars per hour.

A meteor streaks across the sky during the 2009 Leonid meteor shower. (Navicore / Wikimedia Commons).

The Leonid meteor shower takes place each November as the Earth passes through a ring of rocky debris left by the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The number of shooting stars we get to see down here is determined by what part of the comet's orbit we pass through on any given year. In 1996, a pass through a really rocky part of the comet's orbit led to a meteor storm of up to 1,000 per hour. The 15 to 20 meteors per hour expected this year is considered average for the Leonids.

If you live in a city like Los Angeles, where light pollution makes it difficult to see any stars at all, you've got a few options for catching this annual meteor shower. You could head out to the desert or up into the mountains to get away from the city lights. However, here in the West, cloudy skies may make the Leonids difficult to view. Your best bet may be to watch the shower online with thousands of other virtual stargazers.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has set up a live Ustream feed of the view from a telescope turned to the skies over Huntsville, Ala. It will be running through Tuesday. Watching a celestial event on a computer screen doesn't have the same magic as lying on your back in the dark of night and watching directly, but it does let you participate in a global stargazing experience without leaving the comfort of your own light-polluted town. - LA Times.

November 17, 2012 - BRITAIN - Britain will grind to a halt within weeks as the most savage freeze for a century begins. Temperatures will fall as low as minus 20C in rural areas, forecasters warned last night, while heavy snow and "potentially dangerous" blizzards will close roads and cripple rail networks. James Madden, forecaster for Exacta Weather, said: "We are looking at some of the coldest and snowiest conditions in at least 100 years.

Scene from the 2004 movie "The Day After Tomorrow".

This is most likely to occur in the December to January period with the potential for widespread major snowfall across the country. "Parts of the North, Scotland and eastern England are likely to experience a run of well below average temperatures, which will include some potentially dangerous blizzard conditions at times." He warned the South faces a bout of "unusually heavy snowfall" in December. Leon Brown, meteorologist for The Weather Channel, said snow could arrive as early as next weekend, with temperatures falling to minus 5C in the North. "There is a 30 per cent risk of some snow over lower levels in Scotland on Friday." But before the big freeze arrives the problem will be torrential rain and strong winds gusting up to 80mph. The Met Office last night issued severe weather warnings for heavy rain in parts of the North-west on Monday and Tuesday.

Forecaster Dan Williams said: "Low pressure is going to bring rain and some strong gusts to parts of the country on Sunday night and into Monday. It is going to be a very unsettled week after that with bursts of rain and strong gusts throughout. Apart from Sunday, the weather will be very changeable so that is when to make the most of it." Jonathan Powell, of Vantage Weather Services, warned: "The ground is already saturated from the wet summer, so flooding is a definite risk next week." He said the worst of the big freeze would hit in January and February when winter delivers a sting in the tail. "We are looking at January and early February for winter to really bare its teeth. Extreme low temperatures in rural areas, especially in the North where minus 20C is not unlikely, with the possibility of significant snow events." Britain's "roller coaster" November has so far seen freezing temperatures followed by almost spring-like conditions. Temperatures rose by 22C in just 24 hours as milder weather triggered heavy rain in Scotland and the North. Temperatures topped 61F (16C) in England, while parts of Scotland enjoyed their warmest November day since 2001. Just a day earlier Aboyne in Aberdeenshire shivered in minus 6.1C. - Daily Express.

November 17, 2012 - RUSSIA - As reported by TV company "Arig Us" from Republic of Buryatia, Russia- in the cold Republic of Buryatia, which is located in the east of Russia, for first time observed the snow tornado- huge tornado, which suddenly appeared out of the snow on the uninhabited forests of Buryatia.

Vladimir Daganeev, a resident of Buryatia, was able to shoot the video of snow tornado in the mountains of the Oka region of Buryatia, at an altitude of about 3000 meters above sea level. Tornado lifted in the air a lot of snow, moving over the mountain tundra along Oka Ridge, the most surprising was, that the tornado was observed in complete silence and with full calm. Never before in the last 80 years in the Republic of Buryatia, was not seen a tornado, journalists associated appearance a tornado with global climate change on the planet. - Hainan Wel.

November 17, 2012 - EUROPE - On Friday, S&P slashed ABN AMRO’s rating to A from A+ and Rabobank’s rating to AA- from AA. Two other banks, SNS REAAL and F. van Lanschot Bankiers were also cut by one notch.

"In our view, Dutch banks are exposed to increased economic risks as a result of a potentially more protracted downturn in the Netherlands and wider eurozone," said the New York-based rating agency in a statement. Dutch bank ING has said on November 7 it would lay off another 2,350 employees over time after a huge profit plunge.

The bank released figures showing that the net profit for Q3 2012 has only reached 609 million euros, indicating a massive reduction from the 1.69 billion-euro profit reported in the same quarter last year.

Europe plunged into financial crisis in early 2008. Insolvency now threatens heavily-debt-ridden countries such as Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Ireland. The worsening debt crisis has forced the EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms which have triggered incidents of social unrest and massive protests in many European countries. - Press TV.

November 17, 2012 - WORLDWIDE VOLCANOES - The following constitutes the new activity, unrest and ongoing report from the Volcano Discovery Group.

A hot spot is visible on recent MODIS satellite images at Chirpoi volcano in the Kuriles. A dense steam plume drifting SE can be seen on a Aqua satellite image from 16 Nov 2012. Although KVERT lists the volcano as green, it is likely that some activity is occurring at the volcano.

Popocatépetl volcano in Mexico has calmed down considerably to only about 2 emissions of steam and ash per hour (after having reached numbers of 150-200 per day during recent days). The decline might be in connection with the M6.0 Tlalchapa earthquake yesterday morning or simply be part of the fluctuations in activity the volcano has been undergoing over the past months.

Fuego volcano in Guatemala remains very calm. The lava flow towards the Ceniza canyon was 350 m long yesterday.

Santiaguito produced a weak explosion occurred at 19:16 h local time on 16 Nov with an ash column rising 400 m and strong glow visible. There are constant weak and moderate avalanches from the active lava flows from the lava dome.

A small earthquake swarm occurred yesterday morning at Little Sitkin volcano in the Aleutians (Alaska). USGS has not noted any other unusual activity. - Volcano Discovery.

November 17, 2012 - PORTUGAL - A tornado has struck Portugal’s Algarve coastline injuring 13 people. The strong winds and heavy rain took locals by surprise in a country not used to such violent climatic conditions. The city of Lagoa and popular tourist town of Silves took a direct hit. “It began to rain a lot and it was very windy, the ground started shaking. I held the window and suddenly everything started breaking in my hands, and it came into my house – everything is destroyed,” said one victim. A trail of destruction has left hundreds of people homeless and some of the injured had to be cut free from their cars after the swirling winds tossed their vehicles into the air. - Euro News.

Unprecedented chaos tore through the Lagoa Sol urbanization (Lagoa, Algarve) today (Friday, 16 November) when a massive tornado literally ripped up the neighbourhood at around 1.30pm. Cars were tossed and flipped, trees uprooted, balconies, roof tiles and framework ripped off, windows shattered and vehicles tossed for metres. Hundred of people have been left homeless by the freak incident in which the entire neighbourhood has been reduced to tatters, and many have been injured. Panicking parents rushed to a nearby-by school to collect their children who were in class when the tornado hit, and billboards on a nearby roundabout were mangled. The exact extent of the damage and seriousness of the injuries are still being calculated.

Abel Silva, born and raised in Lagoa, saw his ground-floor apartment destroyed in a terrifying incident which last minutes. "It was overwhelming. All of a sudden my windows started shaking, the ground was trembling. I tried to hold the windows but I saw they were going to blow I so I threw myself to the side. The entire house has been destroyed. I've never seen anything like this before."... Bad weather including strong winds, thunder and lightening has tormented the Algarve today (Friday, 16 November). There was a power shortage in Lagos caused by persistent stormy weather, the village of Ferragudo and city of Albufeira have flooded, and damage has been caused in several places across the region. Residents in Silves told The Portugal News "it looks like a bomb has hit it." Eyewitness reports say a glass dome that sits on top of the Town Hall has been shattered... The Weather Institute (IM) has now placed the Algarve under orange alert - a warning of moderate to high risk meteorological situation. Heavy downpours accompanied by strong winds and thunder are predicted. Waves could reach five metres. They also said freak weather situations cannot be predicted but the conditions are right for more to occur during the next few hours. - Portugal News Online.

November 17, 2012 - UNITED KINGDOM - These photographs apparently show a large fireball in the skies above Chelmsford. The pictures are just two of a series taken by Eleanor Collop, 13, and her 17-year-old sister Leanne, after they spotted the 'meteor' from outside their home on the Beechenlea Estate. The burning object was seen high in the sky last Friday at 4pm and appeared to fall to earth, leaving the sisters to wonder whether they had just witnessed a plane crash.

Eleanor, a student at Hylands School, said: "I haven't seen anything like that before - it was so bright." She spotted the object - with a distinctive fiery core and long, forked tail - as she got ready for her after-school paper-round. "I was just taking my trolley from the garage when I caught sight of it," said Eleanor. "At first I thought it was a plane but it got brighter and brighter. "I shouted for my sister and then we called our dad, who told us to take a picture." The fireball - thought to be caused by debris burning up in the earth's atmosphere - spent five minutes visible in the Chelmsford sky before it disappeared behind some houses. "I'm not sure what it was but it was bright and it definitely looked like it was burning," added Eleanor, who used a normal ten-megapixel camera to capture the images.

The event stunned the family so much that Eleanor's mother, Martine, called the police to ask if anyone else in Essex had seen a burning meteor. "I just can't believe Eleanor and Leanne were the only two people to see it," she said. An expert from the Royal Astronomical Society said it was "unusual" to see a meteor during the day. Dr Robert Massey said: "On the face of it, the streaks look a lot like aircraft contrails illuminated by the setting sun. "That said, there are occasional meteors that are bright enough to be seen in daylight - in this case the sun didn't set until around 4.15pm. "So, without having seen it in motion, this may be an image of a larger-than-average piece of debris burning up in the Earth's atmosphere," he added. "This happens all the time and are normally seen at night as shooting stars, most of which are relatively small. "But it's unusual to see an event during the day." - Total Essex.

November 17, 2012 - TONGA - A strong 6.1 magnitude earthquake jolted the Tonga region at 0512 GMT Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake was located at 18.311°S 172.374°W with a depth of 9.8km (6.1miles). The epicentre was at a distance of 174km (108miles) ENE of Neiafu, Tonga; 430km (267miles) NE of Nuku`alofa, Tonga; 474km (295mi) SSW of Tafuna, American Samoa; 480km (298miles) SSW of Pago Pago, American Samoa; and 499km (310mi) S of Apia, Samoa.

According to NOAA's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, no current warning or advisory is effect. No reports of any damage have been reported.

This earthquake constitutes the eight tremor of magnitude 6.0 or higher over the last six days.

Seismotectonics of the Eastern Margin of the Australia Plate.
The eastern margin of the Australia plate is one of the most sesimically active areas of the world due to high rates of convergence between the Australia and Pacific plates. In the region of New Zealand, the 3000 km long Australia-Pacific plate boundary extends from south of Macquarie Island to the southern Kermadec Island chain. It includes an oceanic transform (the Macquarie Ridge), two oppositely verging subduction zones (Puysegur and Hikurangi), and a transpressive continental transform, the Alpine Fault through South Island, New Zealand. Since 1900 there have been 15 M7.5+ earthquakes recorded near New Zealand. Nine of these, and the four largest, occurred along or near the Macquarie Ridge, including the 1989 M8.2 event on the ridge itself, and the 2004 M8.1 event 200 km to the west of the plate boundary, reflecting intraplate deformation. The largest recorded earthquake in New Zealand itself was the 1931 M7.8 Hawke's Bay earthquake, which killed 256 people. The last M7.5+ earthquake along the Alpine Fault was 170 years ago; studies of the faults' strain accumulation suggest that similar events are likely to occur again. - USGS.